EN 
RO 
Sociology appears to have become (if it was not already) a discipline characterized by fluid boundaries or variable geometry. The incorporation of the current dynamic reality, marked by numerous turbulences, into the research agenda requires a remodeling with significant implications for the field's identity. Contemporary sociology presents itself in various forms, including as a sociology of multiplexity.
The concept of multiplexity, integral to the study of social networks, highlights the multi-substantial nature of social relationships (e.g., two social actors are connected by more than one type of social relationship). Generally defined as coexisting multidimensionality, multiplexity in sociology stems from several sources. Firstly, research topics are highly diversified, including specific, local, regional, and global issues.
Secondly, sociology is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. It finds itself in collaborative relationships with physics (e.g., climate change and extreme phenomena), medicine (e.g., understanding social risk factors in cancer prevention and other diseases), biology (e.g., studying animal social networks), geography (e.g., modeling human mobility flows), and many other fields. This interdisciplinarity arises from addressing contemporary problems as complex issues that require multi- and interdisciplinary solutions.
Thirdly, sociology incorporates methods from computational sciences, such as big data analysis and simulated information, to tackle topics that were previously impossible to research. Fourthly, sociology continues to focus on issues related to social justice and inequalities with the aim of contributing to the construction and reconstruction of various public social projects.
From the perspective of sociology as multiplexity, social problems and relationships are organized multilevel and captured in a complex dynamic. This challenges the classical repertoire of analysis and demands continuous methodological innovation. The development of technology and artificial intelligence, virtual reality, complex simulations and modeling, and intense communication with other sciences and study fields have allowed research methods to continue evolving, integrating advanced qualitative and quantitative techniques that enable new perspectives on the study of social behavior.
An argument in this regard comes from the study of social structures. In a very reserved formulation, the application of network science to human structures is found in the form of social network analysis. Social network analysis is already part of the mainstream currents of sociology. This fact provides an example suggesting the intense transformation processes through which sociology has passed in recent decades. The fact that social network analysis is also an integral part of sociology implicitly advances the scenario of interdisciplinarity or frontier research. Social network analysis represents a well-coalesced blend of social theory, mathematics, and computational science, among others. This blend underpins extremely complex statistical models that test alternative or competing explanations concerning social behaviors. For instance, using repeated measurements over time, social processes such as selection and influence are differentiated through highly laborious efforts of processing social data.
The Romanian Sociologists Society (RSS) continues to be an important platform for Romania's professional community to disseminate a wealth of theoretical and methodological perspectives and approaches; a wealth that integrates the idea of multiplex sociology, in which the connection of theories and methodologies is accomplished in a horizon of multiple valences. At the same time, risk factors to sociology that endanger the status and identity of the field represent an urgent invitation to dialogue addressed to the community.
Marian-Gabriel Hâncean
President of the Romanian Sociologists Society